Nintendo Says Tariffs Weren't Factored Into the $450 Price of the Switch 2 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 07 April 2025 / 4,409 Views
Nintendo last week announced the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch for $449.99 USD, while a Mario Kart World Bundle will also be available for $499.99 USD.
Experts believed the Switch 2 costing $150 more than the original Switch did at launch is partly due to Nintendo anticipating Trump tariffs, however, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has stated that is not the case.
Bowser revealed to The Verge, "Put [the April 2nd announcement] aside. Any previous tariffs were not factored into the price itself."
Later the same day, Donald Trump would announce widespread tariffs, including Vietnam and Cambodia, which will see a 46 percent and 49 percent tariff, respectively. It has been reported that over half of the hardware imported into the US from Nintendo comes from those two countries.
Nintendo would end up delaying the start date for pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch 2 from April 9 to a later date in the US due to the potential impact of the Trump tariffs.
"Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions," reads a statement from Nintendo. "Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged."
Bowser added, "The news is fresh, and like many companies right now, we are actively assessing what the impact may be."
He was asked as to why the Switch 2 is so expensive if tariffs and he stated the more powerful internals, bigger LCD screen, improved Joy-Con controllers, new features like GameChat, and more.
"We want to make sure that this is a device that is approachable, that consumers will see as part of their overall entertainment experiences and will understand that it has longevity to it," he said. "And all of those factors really go into the consideration of the price."
The $449.99 price of the Switch 1 is $100 more expensive than the $349.99 price of the Switch OLED and Bowser was asked if this influenced the price.
"You want to consider pricing relative to the Switch since we still have that in distribution," said Bowser. "But, really, the consideration was driven more by what is a part of this particular gaming experience versus what it is relative to the Switch 1."
The Switch 2 itself isn't the only thing that is more expensive compared to the Switch 1. The price of games has also increased with Mario Kart World costing $79.99 and Donkey Kong Bananza costing $69.99. Bowser says "each game, we believe, is a unique experience."
Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a paid tech demo rather than a free pack-in title like Wii Sports or Astro's Playroom. Bowser states, "As this game was being developed, what’s been packed into it is a depth of minigame experiences. They’re very deep, they’re very repeatable. And so, as we looked at that depth of play experience and opportunity, we felt that $9.99 was a fair price to ask for that."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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I hope the tariffs issue gets resolved quickly because from what I've read, countries like Vietnam and Japan are in talks with the US to make a deal.
The problem is that the tariffs were based on the American trade deficit, meaning it's literally impossible to make a deal in that regard.
Vietnam dropping to zero their negligible 5% tariffs on US products aren't going to do anything.
I think I've read something about that the other day. At this point, I just hope it all gets sorted out before the more aggressive reciprocal tariffs come into effect.
If this is anything like the Trump Tariffs from his first term... everything will be fine
Trump literally always does the "big ask" first, then meets somewhere in the middle.
Its just a negotiation tactic, I don't understand how people still haven't figured this out in the last 10 years
It's also completely made up numbers. Trump doesn't have a clue what he's doing and is just running a "revenge tour" of sorts.
We have to take inflation into account. You could say the original Switch effectively got discounts over its lifetime simply by not increasing in price. A launch price of $400 to $450 for the Switch 2 was completely expected, given the more modern components and the fact that it’s a brand-new product.
It also seems like many people don’t realize the Switch has always been sold at a lower price in Japan. For example, right now you can buy a Lite for around $100 and an OLED for about $230 on Amazon.jp. So it’s no surprise that the Switch 2 is priced under $400 over there. They even considered the gray market, at least to some extent.
Revised US price of $499 incoming?
Yeah, was pretty clear to me this wasn't about the tariffs, the price in Japan is equivalent to about $350 USD whereas in most other countries it was equivalent to $450 USD and even $500+ in a few countries. It made no sense for the prices to be jacked up above the Japan price everywhere in the world just about when they could have simply raised the price on US alone.
This does raise the question of why it costs so much more in the rest of the world than it does in Japan though.
They did it for the same reason Sony did it after the success of the PS2: profits. I know it shocks people, but Nintendo is a business first, not a charity organization. The only thing that shocks ME is how dumb of a move it was. I mean, the industry is old now. We have seen this sort of thing before. Why repeat it? Did they really think things would go differently? lol I mean, they even did this once themselves with the 3DS. But no. Let's do it again. It's insane.
So if Japan gets what they want, reciprocal zero tariffs. Will the price of the switch drop or will Nintendo keep it at $450?
And will Maro Kart World drop in price, what about the digital price?
The price will remain at $450, this is what they expect probably ages ago before orange man. It' no doubt the cost they can afford based on modern prices of the technology and parts and what they are happy to sell it for without either a loss per unit.
Games prices are something else, not sure how they are affected, I think digital goods are exempt.
Proof again that Nintendo REALLY didn't think this system through. These prices are WITHOUT the effect of the tariffs? Or even an idea of what the tariffs would be?
Yeah, I never personally suspected this. Switch 2 was always going to be a $399 minimum IMO and I think they saw the market including Switch never needing a price cut and thought they'd push the upper brackets of what they could charge.
Yup, I think Nintendo saw the ridiculous inflation from the last few years and placed a bet that it would continue...
Put the price a bit higher now and you won't have to raise it later
Yup, I think Nintendo saw the ridiculous inflation from the last few years and placed a bet that it would continue...
Put the price a bit higher now and you won't have to raise it later
Glad Doug clarified the costs, but tariffs are still the bigger problem here.
Absolutely, and they affect everything, not just games.
They're effecting everyone's economy. -_-
It's even more expensive in Europe, and in Poland it's 45€ more expensive than the price in Euro... 2200 PLN is 513 euro.
You can just pop over to Germany to get one or use Amazon Germany.
